Weekend in Grand Tetons and Yellowstone

We took a quick trip to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone two weekend ago. We rented a trailer and headed up. It was beautiful and pleasant (kind of). We stayed one night in Star Valley on the way up. Then camped in  Tetons National Park.

Here's our top 10.

10. Working through the old library of DVDs

We took the adventure mobile, as usual. The Acadia has a DVD player and screen. Typically we would grab a movie from redbox but we were in a hurry so it didn't happen. The kids thought it would be fun to rewatch some of the more obscure movies they watched as kids. This included the bellflower bunnies and show Hudson and Tate grew up on, Sleeping Beauty and

 

9. I want a mini bus

We have been blessed with some of the best neighbors you could ever ask for.  One particular neigbor, Craig Barrett, across the street had a sweet mini bus.  He was very generous with his rides on this epically cool bus.  He frequently took the kids to church on this bus and they absolutely loved.  Sadly, several years ago, Craig passed away and his wife was selling the mini bus.  Tommy really wanted to buy the and it was a great price.  Megan in her ever practical and sometimes buzzkill ways couldn't find a reason why we spend money on something that we couldn't really use much.  In the end, we didn't get the bus.

Fast forward to this trip and we were reminiscing about the lost bus opportunity. Later on, we were discussing dinner options. Kids were yelling out, "I want Carl's Jr", "I want Arbys". Reece blurts out, "I want a mini bus. He was too little to ever remember the mini bus, but our stories about it had apparently left an impression.

8. "I'm just not that good at camping"

Harper does not enjoy camping.  She is more of a "beach" vacation girl.  She will let us know repeatedly when we go camping how "she doesn't want to be there." After mutiple times of hearing this chorus of complaing on repeat and the other kids joining in Megan and I got a bit upset with the kids.  Later that night Harper tried a much softer approach and announced that "she is just not that good at camping."  At least the girl is honest with herself.

7. Meteor shower

This was a wonderful treat. I had planned the trip over the Perseid Meteor shower. So, when we slept in a remote area of Star Valley, the stars were super bright. We laid out our sleeping bags and all huddled together to watch the meteor shower for a while. We saw numerous shooting stars. It was one of those truly special moments that the kids will tuck away forever.

6. Rock Climbing

Going to a new rock climbing spot is always a gamble. You never know if it's going to be crowded, accurately rated, or easy to find. We went to Blacktail Butte in the Tetons. It was easy to find the lower wall but we were never found the upper wall; which had more appropriate routes. So we hiked around while some people got off the easier routes. They were still pretty hard, but Tate and I got pretty into it and Tate kept pushing himself and eventually climbed up beyond where I was able to get to. It was really enjoyable.

5. Return to yellowstone, and a convert

The first stop at Yellowston was at West thumb Geyser basin trail. As soon as we stopped there, Megan started getting the feels. She got so excited about being there. The kids thought it was funny til we said that Yellowstone was Mom's Bear Lake. Then I think they understood.



Tate was fascinated by everything. He loved it and wanted to see every geyser. He even plans to come back again later.

4. Gideon's fear of getting gored by a bison

I think Gideon read too many signs. And the video of the guy taunting a bison near old faithful and getting tossed in the air by a bison that we watched while we waited in the eternal line for ice cream at the old faithful market could have been the final linch pin. Needless to say he was a bit "team I think we should steer clear of any and all Bisons"

He would ask about Bisons, the likelyhood of them being in the area and eventually he got the point where he wouldn't stay out with us around the camp fire. He would come out for the smores, then bolt back into the trailer.

The ironic thing was that at one point in time we were driving and there was a huge line of cars, we passed all of them only to find that there was a huge Bison walking down one side of the highway.  We passed right next to him in our car incident free.

3. Hudson's best (little girl) friend

After visiting old Faithful, we stopped by Saphire pool and jumped in the water. A little girl instantly bonded with Hudson and was telling her everything about herself. She was even holding Hudson's hand as she walked in the shallow water. She immedietly bonded to Hudson and wouldn't let her out of her sight.  Hudson wanted to join us on the other side of the water by the hot springs but couldn't get away. She eventually had to covertly sneak over to the other side of the water.  It was super cute.

2. Bouldering park

On the way home we stopped at a Boulding Park in Jackson Hole. I've never seen one of these and was impressed. It was really fun. Gideon got particularly excited about a few routes. One he kept trying over and over and over again until he finally summitted. His tenacity was really impressive.

2. Laman and Lemuels

We made 3 stops on the way home. The kids were NOT happy about it. They wanted to go straight home. There was much mumbling and murmuring. At the boulder park stop, the 3 older kids were excessively whiney. They sat in the car for quite a while but then came out and continued to whine over in a huddle. It was like watching Laman and Lemuel murmur over their father's decisions.

1. Picking Wild berries

As our final stop, we swung over to Grover Park (the same place we camped the first night) to pick wild berries. We were able to find Huckleberries and Grouse Whortleberries. Both were delicious. It was really fun. We later had them for breakfast with `waffles.